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As a new bunch of suited and booted candidates prepare for their boardroom battles in the 12th series of BBC One’s The Apprentice , we look at what's happened to previous years' winner since being hired.

Does anyone remeber last year's top boy, Joseph Valente? How about series one's winner - Tim Campbell who became Lord Sugar's partner way back in 2005?

Also, will Welsh chocolate-maker Alana Spencer (see her audition above) make the cut? Let's see who she'll have to measure up to:

Series 11: Joseph Valente

A self-confessed “naughty boy” come good, Valente was expelled from school but turned his life around soon after by starting his own plumbing business. These days he heads up ImpraGas, the company he successfully pitched to Lord Sugar .

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Series 10: Mark Wright

(Photo: Ian West/PA Wire)

Aussie Mark dangled the 'digital era' carrot to Lord Sugar who invested £250,000 into Mark's new search engine optimisation firm, Climb Online, which has turned over a profit in its first year of trading.

The confident 25-year-old from Down Under , who used to psych out fellow candidates by not packing his suitcase before trips to the infamous boardroom, was the tenth winner of The Apprentice and is a 50/50 shareholder at Climb Online alongside Lord Sugar.

Series 9: Leah Totton

Leah from Londonderry in Northern lreland was the third winner to pick up a £250,000 investment from Lord Sugar who is now an equal shareholder in her cosmetic skin clinic based in Moorgate, London.

Leah, a qualified doctor and now one of the UK's youngest cosmetic surgeons, offers anti-ageing treatments, laser hair removal and effective alternatives to surgical liposuction through her clinic which is appropriately named Dr Leah.

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Series 8: Ricky Martin

The former pro wrestler who famously dubbed himself 'the reflection of perfection' won over Lord Sugar with his business plan for a specialist science and technology recruitment company.

Today they are partners in Hyper Recruitment Solutions with Ricky managing the day-to-day running of the firm.

Series 7: Tom Pellereau

Tom was the first winner of The Apprentice in its new format where, instead of a job, Lord Sugar awarded his champion a £250,000 investment into their own business.

Known by his moniker 'Inventor Tom', he is involved in numerous innovative products including the Stylfile, the extra safe baby feeding brand Babisil, as well as a screen to prevent damage to musicians’ ear drums.

Tom's victory in The Apprentice came despite him being the worst-performing winner in the show's history losing eight of the eleven weekly tasks.

Series 6: Stella English

She had initially impressed on the show and was tipped for triumph from start to finish, so it was little surprise she was hired and rewarded with a job at Lord Sugar's Viglen IT company.

However, Stella quickly became disillusioned in her role and described herself as an 'overpaid lackey' on £100,000 a year doing 'menial' jobs.

She now works as a host on Crowd Box, the world’s first crowd funding TV channel, and says she has no regrets with how her Apprentice experience concluded.

Watch Lord Sugar's surprise triple firing on The Apprentice 2014

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Series 5: Yasmina Siadatan

Yasmina was second favourite to Kate Walsh in a hotly contested series five final but overcame the odds to win a £100,000 job at Lord Sugar's Amscreen Healthcare division, working alongside his son Simon.

After a year in the role, Yasmina went on maternity leave but never fully returned to work after falling pregnant again just months after giving birth to her first child.

She resigned in 2011 to concentrate on her family and these days, she is the creative director of Start Up Loans – a company that provides mentoring and finance to 60,000 entrepreneurs and is funded by the UK Government.

She also co-owns the Mya Lacarte restaurant in Reading, which specialises in produce grown in Britain.

Series 4: Lee McQueen

Lee was infamously chosen to be Lord Sugar’s apprentice in series four despite lying on his CV about the amount of time he spent at university.

He survived that and also managed to survive calling in sick on his first day at Amscreen before going on to spend two years at the company as development director in 'digital signage'.

In 2010 he set up a recruitment and training company called Raw Talent Academy based in Oxfordshire.

He has also developed Talent Hub, a division of the business which specialises in experienced sales people.

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Series 3: Simon Ambrose

Out of all The Apprentice winners over the last decade, Simon's three years as an employee under Lord Sugar represents the longest stint of any apprentice.

He worked in the Amsprop Estates division but decided to walk away from the £100,000-a-year job to pursue a variety of interests including investing in a London restaurant, members club and art gallery and running an events production company as well as working as a property developer.

Series three is now also renowned as 'the one with that Katie Hopkins' in it.

Series 2: Michelle Dewbury

Michelle was the second winner of The Apprentice fending off the no-nonsense Ruth Badger in a fiercely contested final.

However her career working for Lord Sugar was short-lived and he later commented that Michelle, and series six winner Stella, are the only apprentices to leave their new jobs before the end of the initial 12-month contracts – though Michelle and Lord Sugar did part on good terms.

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These days, in addition to appearing on Sky News alongside host Eamonn Holmes, Michelle works with the Sun newspaper on their unemployment roadshow, runs two businesses and is about to launch a new business in the New Year aimed at helping job-seekers get back into work.

Series 1: Tim Campbell

Eleven years ago, Tim became the first ever winner of The Apprentice landing a job at Lord Sugar's Amstrad division but two years later, he left his 'comfort zone' to setup the social enterprise Bright Ideas Trust designed to help young entrepreneurs from disadvantaged backgrounds.

The self-confessed 'Frank Bruno of the business world' was quickly becoming a heavyweight in the world of social enterprise.

In the 2012 New Year Honours List, he was made an MBE for his services to enterprise culture. He is also currently London’s Ambassador for Training and Enterprise, appointed by the Mayor of London Boris Johnson.